Heart of Thorns
by Ink Spotz
Summary: Kent McKinley thought that he was the greatest singer in the world. When he refuses to help a young, aspiring singer, Belle, take off with her career, he is cursed to show his "heart of thorns" to the world. It won't be until he turns his heart into gold and finds love that he'll turn back. Inspired by "Beauty and the Beast"
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Kent smiled and took a bow as the crowd roared with applause. He stood back up with a beaming smile. He loved to bask in the attention of his fans. He listened to all of the fans that were chanting his name.

"Kent McKinley will be backstage signing autographs for any interested fans," announced someone from a far off control booth.

Kent rolled his eyes, yet none of his fans seemed to notice. This was the part of the evening that Kent hated the most. He **hated** signing autographs and getting to meet his fans. They were always overly excited to meet him. Some of them would scream so loud when they saw him that it would make him suffer from headaches. He also detested meeting wannabe singers who were hoping that he could give them an edge in somewhere. They had to suck it up already and realize that they weren't as good, and never would be, as good as him.

Some members of the crew backstage offered to take care of Kent's guitar while some offered to hand him a towel to wipe away the sweat with. Instead of being grateful for the towel and the guitar handoff, Kent pushed them both back demanding that they give him his space. He shoved the guitar at a crew member standing off to the left and yanked the towel out of another crew member's hands.

"Mr. McKinley sir, your fans are waiting for you," said the voice of his manager.

Kent released a long, drawn out sigh into the towel and threw it at another crew member, who stumbled back in surprise as the towel hit him. His manager led him through the crew members, who were busy dismantling the set and packing it up for the next location, and to a table that was situated by the venue entrance. In front of the table were hordes of teenage girls screaming his name. When they saw him, it just seemed to make the screams grow louder.

"I'll be back to relieve you of your fans in an hour," said his manager with a slight smile as he turned and walked off.

Kent turned and watched his manager walk off, thinking, "_An hour in my hometown of London with a bunch of screaming girls? WHY?!"_

Kent turned back around to look at his adoring fans and placed a fake smile upon his face. He knew that he couldn't show his fans that he was unhappy to see them if he wanted to keep receiving their money. He knew that he couldn't afford to show them what a monster he was.

He signed autographs and took pictures with fanatic girls for a bit; the time seeming to stretch on and on. It wasn't until this teenage girl stood in front of her that he snapped out of his time warp. She had on a pair of faded blue jeans and a brown corduroy jacket. Some black boots that were on her feet had dried mud caked on them. She had an acoustic guitar strapped to her back; a notebook clutched tightly in her hands. Her auburn colored hair was tucked into a ponytail on the top of her head; her hazel eyes peeking out at him through thick, black framed glasses.

"Hi. My name is Belle," said the girl sticking her hand out.

"Hi," I said staring at her hand instead of shaking it.

Belle blushed and quickly withdrew her hand from in front of me. She used both hands to hug the notebook tight to her chest as if the book were about to explode.

"I'm such a fan of your work...,"

"Why thank you," said Kent interrupting Belle.

"...and I was just wondering...I know you're local talent and I was just wondering..."

Kent glared at Belle.

"You're asking me for help boosting your music career, aren't you?"

"Yes...I mean, it would greatly help...I mean, no one wants to give me a shot because I...

"Let me guess! It's because you ramble so much, right? I mean, if you ramble in your speech, you _must_ ramble in your songs! I'm sorry. I can't help you. I'm very busy."

Belle tried to choke back tears, not knowing what to say. With tears brimming in the corners of her eyes, she turned and walked away.

Kent watched Belle walk away. He smirked. He knew that she wouldn't have a shot in the music career. The girl that was next in line looked like a punk. She had dark black hair and black eyeshadow outlining her bright blue eyes. She had an odd black skirt on with a purple t-shirt. She was wearing converse sneakers with purple and gray socks.

"Can I help you?" asked Kent after the girl just stood there glaring at him in silence for a couple of minutes.

"No, but maybe you can help yourself," said the girl.

Kent was puzzled by what the girl was saying. What was she talking about?  
The girl placed her hands on the table and leaned forward toward Kent, close enough so that only Kent could hear what she said.

"None of your other fans heard the transaction that just occured between you and Belle. In their eyes you're still their perfect angel, yet I know clearly that what lies within you is not a heart of gold, but a heart of thorns."

"What are you doing sticking your nose where it doesn't belong?" hissed back Kent. "You can't tell me how to run my life. You're not the boss of me. Now scram. I'm not about to have a lecture from some freak."

The girl smiled a coy smile and said, "We'll just see who the freak is."

She leaned forward and gripped his hand before he had time to yank it away. Her hand was only there for a mere moment, yet when she took her hand off his hand and walked away, she could still feel its presence burning there. What did she mean?

Unbeknownst to Kent, he would find out the answer soon enough.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

After Kent was done with signing autographs, he leaned back in his chair with a sigh of relief. Of course, he wasn't really done. There were still scores of girls that wanted his autograph, but his manager had kept his promise and had come back to relieve him of his fans. He was done for the night. He stood up and waved goodbye to his adoring fans, who were overcome by screams of pure fanaticness.

His manager escorted Kent off to the right and out one of the exit doors. Outside the doors, a limo awaited them. The two of them got into the limo and closed the door behind them.

"To the hotel please," stated Kent's manager.

The limo lurched into motion. Kent reached forward and opened the mini fridge that was beside his feet. He extracted a water bottle and held the water to his lips.

"On the way back to the hotel, I'll give you a run down of what is happening tomorrow," said Kent's manager.

Kent rolled his eyes as he brought the bottle of water away from his mouth.

"Are we really going to go over this tonight, Pickner?" asked Kent.

"Yes," replied Pickner firmly. "You need to know what is going on."

Kent emitted a small groan and leaned back in the seat, closing his eyes.

"Tomorrow morning you have an interview on the 'Good Morning, London' show, then you have a soundcheck at the O2 arena, then a performance later that night," said Pickner.

"Alright, got it," said Kent. "Can you stop talking now?"

Pickner looked at Kent with a look of irritation, wondering when the egotistic punk beside him would grow up. He _was _eighteen after all.

The limo soon pulled up to the hotel and Kent opened the door to step outside. He knew that his room in this hotel would be the same type of room that he had had in all the other hotels they had stopped in. He breezed right past the reception desk and rode the elevator to the top floor. His room would be the king suite.

Once he arrived on the top floor, he walked toward the king suite, which had its door open, awaiting his arrival, and threw himself onto the fluffy bed. He sighed with relief and kicked off his shoes with his feet. He felt too lazy to change into pajamas. He felt too lazy to check his emails to see if his parents were worried about him. He felt too lazy to even look up at his manager, Pickner, as he walked into the room.

"I take it you are going to turn in for the night now?" asked Pickner raising one of his eyebrows.

As an answer, Kent rolled over and groaned into the pillow on the bed.

"Alright, I will see you tomorrow morning then Kent," said Pickner as he walked toward the door.

"Shut off the lights on your way out!" exclaimed Kent into the pillow.

With a roll of his eyes, Pickner turned off the lights and closed the door behind him. Kent sank down into the comfiness of the bed and was soon fast asleep, worn out by the night's happenings.

A crash in his hotel room woke Kent from his slumber.

Kent sat bolt upright in the bed, looking wildly around the still dark room. Kent rubbed his eyes and looked at the alarm clock that was on the dresser beside his bed. The pixalated numbers showed Kent that it was only three in the morning. What had made that noise?

"I swear if that's you Pickner, I will hurt you," grumbled Kent as he threw his feet over the side of the bed and walked toward the source of the crash.

The crash had come from the small kitchen in the suite. Kent was expecting the kitchen to be dark like the rest of the suite, but he saw a small, blue glow being emitted from the open freezer. Kent wrapped his arms around his shoulders and walked over toward the freezer.

"Who would leave this freezer open?" asked Kent as he shut the freezer door. "Pickner, the idoit!"

Even though Kent had shut the freezer, he was still freezing. It had felt like the temperture in the room had dropped below the freezing point. Kent shivered and as he released a breath of air, he could see it form into a cloud in front of him.

"Geez it's freezing!" muttered Kent as he walked back into the main part of the suite. "I've got to turn the heat up."

Kent turned on a light, momentarily wincing as the bright light hurt his eyes. He looked for a thermostat and finally stumbled across one. He reached for the dial and was about to turn the heat up when he heard a voice behind him say, "Hello Kent."

Kent quickly whipped around. Standing a couple of feet behind him was the girl that he had met at the signing a couple of hours ago who had the dark black hair and had appeared like a punk. Standing in his hotel room, she seemed like even more of a punk.

"I'm going to call security," stated Kent as he started to walk toward the phone on his dresser.

"Poor, poor Kent. He doesn't get it," said the punk with a slight smile. "I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to help you."

With a flick of her hands, the phone that Kent had managed to pick up, flew out of his hands and slammed back into the receiver. Kent slowly turned to look at the girl and said, "What do you want from me? Do you want my autograph or something?"

"No Kent," said the punk shaking her head. "Like I already told you, I'm only here to help you."

"Help me with what?" asked Kent. "Who are you?"

The punk smiled and suddenly became engulfed by a bright white light. Kent turned his head away until the light dimmed away. Now standing in front of Kent was a girl that was no longer a punk. She had beautiful locks of black hair that cascaded around her face. The angles on her face were perfect, as if they were crafted by an artist. She turned to look at Kent with her bright blue eyes; the white gown she had on wrapped gracefully around her perfect frame.

"My name is Destiny," she said with a dazzling white smile.

"Wow," said Kent, his jaw dropped in awe. He found her stunning.

"You treat people horribly. You walk all over them. It's time you learned a lesson," said Destiny.

A sudden gush of wind caused the chill that already surrounded Kent to grow in intensity. He shivered violently and fell to his knees. His teeth were chattering so hard within his skull that he felt for sure that he was going to freeze to death. Just when Kent thought that his life would end, the wind stopped and all was still. Kent could feel the warmth return to his body as he stood up.

"What was that about?" asked Kent. "What just happened?"

Destiny didn't reply. Instead, she waved her hands and a mirror appeared in front of Kent. Kent stared at his reflection in the mirror and grew light headed. He no longer looked like he used to. Now he had brown, grizzly fur covering his whole body. He looked like he was a werewolf, but he knew that he wasn't. He reached one of his hands up and placed it on his arm only to realize that his hand was a paw. When Kent looked back into the mirror, he noticed that his eyes were a pale yellow color and they stared at him in the glass, fear reflected in them.

"What did you do to me?" asked Kent.

"What makes you think that I did anything to you?" asked Destiny. "You did this to yourself. This is the monster that you are. I just made it so everyone could see it."

"Change me back right now!" demanded Kent.

He leapt forward and with his claws, he scratched Destiny on the arm. A thin trail of scarlet blood appeared on her arm and as Kent stood on the other side of Destiny, she gave him a coy smile.

"Tsk! Tsk! What a bad boy you are!" said Destiny.

The blood that was running slowly off her arm hit the biege carpet of the hotel room and puddled there. Kent watched Destiny with growing irritation as she bent down and placed her hand in the puddle of blood. The puddle of blood swirled around her hand and started to morph. It formed a rose and then solidified. Destiny held the single rose out toward Kent.

"This rose is going to be important to you," said Destiny. "As soon as this rose drops its last petal, you will remain a beast forever."

Kent gasped.

"However, if you somehow manage to change your heart of thorns to a heart of gold and find someone who can clearly see that change in you before the last rose petal drops, you will be change back into your original form."

Destiny waved her hand and a glass case appeared out of thin air. She placed the scarlet rose in the glass case and placed it on the dresser beside Kent's bedside.

"Remember what I said," said Destiny. "Now sleep."

Destiny snapped her fingers and Kent released a yawn. He lumbered toward the bed and fell down onto it, falling into a sound slumber. Destiny smiled a smile and disappeared from the room.

As soon as she disappeared, the first rose petal fell off.

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**Please leave reviews and let me know what you think of it so far! :)**


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